Slow Cooker Maple Brown Sugar Ham

Slow Cooker Maple Brown Sugar Ham is so easy to prepare! The ham is juicy, moist, and full of flavor! Pure maple syrup, brown sugar, and pineapple juice make the best glaze for this delicious ham recipe.

Ham is one of my favorite main dishes! It’s a favorite throughout the year but we always have it for Easter and Christmas each year. I love cooking meat in the slow cooker. Some of my favorite recipes I’ve shared with you for this are Slow Cooker Turkey Breast, and Slow Cooker Beef Barbacoa. What’s not to love about doing about 5 minutes of prep work then having the slow cooker do the rest of the work to create an amazing and flavorful main dish?!

This recipe is crazy easy! Over the last couple of months, I have been making Slow Cooker Ham quite a few times to get the recipe just right. For my family party last month, I made two versions of this recipe but one recipe had pineapple tidbits instead of pineapple juice. I asked my family what they preferred and most said either but the kids preferred the one with no pineapple chunks. So just know that if you prefer that you can add a can of pineapple tidbits instead of pineapple juice.

To make this recipe, you need a 7-10 pound spiral-cut ham. Bone-in or boneless is great! Put it in your slow cooker, rub dark brown sugar all over it, then add pineapple juice, pure maple syrup and ground cloves. That’s it! Then if possible baste it every hour to keep it moist.

Look how beautiful the ham looks when it’s ready!

A few recipe notes for this Slow Cooker Maple Brown Sugar Ham:

-If your ham is a little too big for your slow cooker just cover it tightly with foil.

-Dark brown sugar is preferred in this recipe because of the unique flavor it has with more molasses but light brown sugar will work too.

-Please do not use pancake syrup, use pure maple syrup. Big difference and much better quality too!

-If you need to, you can substitute the maple syrup with honey.

-I know some people either don’t like pineapple juice or are allergic so it can be replaced with water, orange juice or apple juice. I’ve even heard of people using pear juice.

-I tested a lot of different spices in this recipe. I found ground cloves to be the best. It adds the perfect depth of flavor you would expect from ham.

-If you’d like, you can also add cinnamon, ground ginger, or nutmeg. I’d recommend adding 1/8 teaspoon but no more than 1/4 teaspoon of each.

-A lot of recipes similar to this one use 1-2 tablespoons Dijon Mustard. I haven’t tested this recipe with it yet, but if that’s something you think you’d might like, you could add it.

-The ham is already fully cooked so the Slow Cooker is basically just warming it up. I’ve put to cook it for 4-5 hours but it’s a good idea to check on it after 3 hours. You don’t want to overcook it to prevent it from drying out.

-Since my husband and I both come from big families, when we serve this dish for them we like to cut up the ham into slices and then keep it in the extra juices that will be on the bottom of the slow cooker. Just keep the setting on warm and use a slotted spoon for serving.

-Hopefully, that answers any question you might have. If not let me know in the comments!